


A Living Nightmare

by kenwave



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 09:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8366545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenwave/pseuds/kenwave
Summary: “Gabriel?” Jack rasps. The man in question moves into his line of sight, smiling sadly down at him.“You had a nightmare, Jack. Must’ve been bad if it left you like this, huh?”





	

An intense, cloying heat burns at his skin. Debris falling from the ceiling, crumbling into his greying hair. His hands scrape against rock and beams, searching for Gabriel.

A loud groan cuts through the roar of the fire surrounding them, Jack hurrying in the direction of it. He pulls at the rubble, the jagged metal and concrete scraping his hands. Blood drips into his eyes, obscuring his vision, but he wipes it away on his tattered blue duster.

Bright armour now scuffed and dented from the explosion had protected his arms and shoulders, but the rest of his body was a mess. Large gashes ran diagonally from his face, pouring out blood that drips from his nose and chin onto the broken tile. His ears ring, his vision is blotchy, but he ignores the aches and pains of his body. He has to find Gabriel. He has to.

Another groan. This time louder and to his left. Jack rushes toward it. Black burns surround the area, the epicentre of the blast. He knows he should leave, but he can’t. Gabriel is still there, buried. He can’t leave him behind, not if he has a chance of surviving.

Several minutes of struggling to unbury Gabriel reveals a face that would have been beyond recognition if Jack hadn’t have known his face so well. Bone could be seen peeking through torn flesh. Harsh choking broke through any other sounds, blood bubbling up to drip down from blue lips. Brown eyes struggle to stay open, but can’t focus on anything in front of them.

“Gabe?” Jack croaks. His voice sounds so hoarse. He barely recognises it.

Gabriel attempts to speak, but only manages a gurgle. The only thing Jack can focus on is the blood. So much blood. Dripping from his face, from his hands, from Gabriel’s mouth into his goatee -

A hand brushes against his elbow, dark fingers smearing red on the black undershirt.  His gaze focuses on the man in front of him, on the small smile on Gabriel’s face. Jack thinks it’s beautiful despite the blood coating his teeth, making it look grotesque.

It looks like Gabriel is trying to say something to him, but he can’t make it out, Gabriel’s vocal chords the first thing to give up on him. Realising the futility of the situation, Jack pulls the Blackwatch Commander’s limp body from the destruction surrounding them. He drags their bodies to a corner that managed to escape the majority of the destruction and pulls Gabriel up to his chest.

His eyes are closing slowly, pulse almost non-existent. Panic flashes through Jack. He feels useless. He hasn’t felt this useless in decades.

Burying his face in Gabriel’s neck, he sobs as the man’s breath becomes shallower and shallower, each one becoming further and further apart, much like his heartbeats.

“Gabe - Gabriel,” Jack chokes out, hoping he can still hear him. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. For everything. I’m sorry.” He repeats the words like a mantra, until Gabriel’s body becomes cold in his arms.

He can’t breathe - _oh god he can’t_ -

Tumbling out of the blankets that are wrapped around his legs, he falls onto the floor, choking on air. He lays there, tears streaming from his eyes while his throat constricts. Gasps escape from his mouth, occasionally punctuated by a hacking cough.

The door slams open, someone running to his hunched form. Large hands rub soothing circles on his back, the man they belong to hums a familiar melody.

“Gabriel?” Jack rasps. The man in question moves into his line of sight, smiling sadly down at him.

“You had a nightmare, Jack. Must’ve been bad if it left you like this, huh?”

Jack is pulled up into a sitting position, leaning against Gabriel’s shoulder. His hand rubbing soothing little circles into the meat of his shoulder. His throat feels raw, his eyes sore, body boneless. Mentally he’s exhausted despite having just woken up. He turns into Gabriel’s shoulder, taking comfort in the sharp scent of his deodorant.

“Yeah.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“You died.”

“Again?”

“Same one.”

He’s pulled tightly against Gabriel’s chest, the man resting his chin on Jack’s blond head. He can feel puffs of air displacing his hair.

Resting against his lover like this while he returns to his humming lulls Jack into sleep. He welcomes it. He knows Gabriel will be able to wake him up from any nightmare that decides to play with his vulnerable psyche.

Even in his slumber, he can feel Gabriel’s arms around him. Somewhere at the back of his mind he’s aware that sleeping on the floor like this, wrapped up in someone else’s arms, will lead to him being sore, but he’s too exhausted to really care.

He drifts, Gabriel’s humming the only thing keeping him company until the humming turns into shouting, the shouting turns into sirens.

Hands scrape against concrete leaving bloody smears. The warmth of the sun touching his skin greets him once he has fully unburied himself from the rubble, leaving Gabriel behind. Gabriel wouldn’t want him to stay with his dead body until he died. He would want him to move on. He has to move on.

The blood on his face drips off of his chin onto the ground below him, leaving a trail that would be easy to follow if anyone dared to. He limps, bruised and broken in body and spirit. He doesn’t make it much further before he collapses face first into grass, narrowly missing a rock. He groans.

He’s tired. He’s so tired.

Gentle shaking lulls him out of sleep, the forest and pain melting away to reveal Gabriel’s worried face looking down at him. They had moved to the bed at some point in the middle of Jack’s dreaming.

The pillow underneath him was wet with tears. He didn’t realise he had been crying. Quickly, he wipes at his eyes, getting rid of any evidence of what the dream could have been about. But a second glance at Gabriel lets him know the man knew. He always seems to know.

“I think you’ll be sleeping with me for a bit,” Gabriel offers, worry painting his features.

“That isn’t necessary, Gabe. I can sleep on my own, I’m not a child.”

He frowns at Jack. “I’m worried. If you don’t sleep then you’ll start to get sloppy in the field, you’ll get gravely injured, or end up dead. That will only benefit the enemy. It’s not like we haven’t done it before so don’t play the shy card on me, either.” His expression softens, a gentle smile forming on his face. “If you’re with me during the night I can wake you up before the nightmares get too bad.”

The logic is sound, Jack thinks. But he doesn’t want to bother Gabriel with crying out in his sleep. He doesn’t want to become a burden. Another glance at Gabriel’s face, however, gets him to concede. Gabriel only has his boyfriend’s health in mind, he can’t begrudge him for this.  

“Fine.” Jack sighs shakily, sitting up in bed. “We can try.”

With a strong hand resting firmly against the small of his back, Gabriel leads him to his quarters, claiming that Jack’s is too full of bad memories now for him to easily fall asleep. The new environment would help him.

Jack doesn’t quite agree but he’s tired so he lets himself be gently pushed to Gabriel’s room. Once they arrive, he’s lead to the bed. Without question, he lies down, burying his face into one of the pillows. He breathes in, the overwhelming smell of Gabriel soothing him.

He feels the bed dip as Gabriel lowers himself beside him and wraps his arms around his torso, pressing his head into Jack’s shoulder. The feeling of calmness and security lulls him into a deep sleep. The small puffs of Gabriel’s breath on his neck a reassurance that he’s still alive. That the dream was nothing more than that - a dream.

“I love you, Gabriel,” Jack murmurs before he’s pulled into sleep’s embrace.

He dreams of nothing.

He’s woken by his stomach rumbling loudly, and the coldness that drifts around him. Opening his eyes, he’s faced with the walls of an old safe house. Dust lining the floor, grime pasted to the walls.

This isn’t right, he fell asleep in Gabriel’s room. Gabriel should be in the bed with him, or nearby.

This isn’t right.

He turns around, only to be met with emptiness and the cold. His throat tightens, his eyes sting as his memories come back to him. Gabriel is dead. His body buried in the rubble of the Swiss HQ, an empty casket that is buried 6 feet under is all his family has as they sob about how unfair life is.

He’s all alone in the dark room. Living while the man he once loved with every part of his being has passed on.

Gabriel is dead.

He’s been dead for years.

Jack curls in on himself. It was a dream.

It was just a dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to the every amazing TimelessTragedy for being the best beta anyone could hope for!


End file.
